Tips For Picking The Best Window Placement For Your Home

Window placement is the type of decision that seems simple until things go wrong and your attention is drawn to it. Misplaced windows are not easy to correct either, which makes the decision seem daunting. But contractors, architects, and designers make those choices regularly on a variety of buildings. With these tips in mind, you can feel confident about your decision when designing or renovating your home.

Plan For The Interior Layout First

More than one room will share an exterior wall, which means that the needs of your interior space may be competing with the outwards appearance of the house. Because you’ll spend more time on the inside than on the front lawn looking towards your house, it makes sense to prioritize window placement as seen from the inside. This means optimizing for a spectacular view or grouping windows together for better lighting. This is especially apparent if you’re trying to evenly space the windows on both floors when your rooms are not so regularly aligned on the inside.

Being Energy Efficient

In addition to choosing energy saving windows that may use better window coatings, thicker glass or other technology to help insulate the inside of the home, you can also position your window for greater exposure to the sun. The reasoning for chasing sunlight is that with quality windows, you can control the amount of heat that enters your home, which will help keep the temperature down in the summer, but you also want the option of letting your rooms warm up naturally throughout the day during the winter. The effect that’s being optimized is called passive warming, and to achieve it, simply orient your windows to face west as much as possible.

Aesthetics

In addition to function, it’s also important to plan for appearance. Some rules of thumb include:

Lining windows up by their upper edge instead of their lower edge, or even using certain ratios to form interesting boundaries.

Grouping windows together instead of spacing them out (i.e. choose a longer window instead of spreading out smaller ones).

Continuing certain lines around the corners and bends of the house.

While window shape and placement shouldn’t be random, don’t be afraid to use the best window for the room.

Well placed windows will beautify your home inside and out. There are many window styles to choose from to help your property be the best it can be.